Preventive vs Reactive Healthcare: Where Are Your Benefits Failing?

Healthcare benefits have long been associated with safeguarding employees against unforeseen health crises. However, the healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, as are employee expectations. 

The traditional reactive approach to healthcare,  which focuses on treating illnesses after they occur, gives way to a more comprehensive, preventive approach. But where do current employee benefits truly stand in this spectrum? Are they effectively meeting the demands of today’s workforce? Or are they missing the mark by neglecting critical areas of health that matter most to today’s employees?

The Reactive Healthcare Model: A Flawed Approach?

Reactive healthcare is the conventional model that most insurance plans follow. It revolves around addressing health problems once they manifest. While this approach is essential for acute care and emergencies, it falls short in several critical areas:

These areas are often excluded, yet they are vital to a comprehensive preventive strategy.

This is where platforms like welUp by SaveIN step in, offering proactive support across multiple health dimensions, from dental to mental health to fitness, all under one accessible plan.

The Rise of Preventive Healthcare: A Paradigm Shift

Preventive healthcare is aimed at designing healthcare towards people instead of care being after the fact; it is about ensuring people stay healthy so people can know and uncover potential health risks and medical conditions in infancy (before they become serious health problems). Preventive healthcare has many facets, including:

• Regular Health Screenings: Regular health screenings can catch potential health issues like high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes while they are not risky, preventable, avoidable, or manageable. With welUp's preventative healthcare platforms, employees can receive regular health screenings for a zero financial burden with the zero percent EMI model that can alleviate the financial burden of preventative healthcare.
• Wellness Programs: Inclusive wellness programming in fitness, nutrition, mental health, and chronic health can also decrease overall healthcare costs in the long run. welUp expands beyond basal wellness programs, which can include additional services that focus on undercovered aspects like fertility, skincare, or even dental health. Wellness is the totality of wellness and well-being, not episodic episodes or treatment(s) when they are necessary.
• Mental Health Support: Proactive mental health services (counseling, stress management, etc.) enable employees to manage their emotional well-being, which can have an immediate impact on productivity in the workplace. In a world where burnout and stress are rampant, providing mental health services should be more than an option or supplementary; it should be a necessity. welUp's all-in-one plans provide mental health counseling as a standard service, giving employees the access they need when they need it.
• Lifestyle Management: Weight loss, smoking cessation, and active and fitness programs help to foster healthier lifestyles and lower the prevalence of chronic disease. Instead of reactive plans that intervene only when there is a problem, welUp supports preventive wellness with individualized fitness programs, dietary consultations, etc.

The Gap in Employee Benefits: How Are Employers Missing the Mark?

Despite the overwhelming evidence supporting the use of preventive care and all of its benefits, most employee benefits packages focus primarily on a reactive basis. Here lies the gap:

• Limited Coverage: Dental, eye care, fertility, and mental health coverage are typically excluded from traditional insurance plans as preventive services. welUp provides one single plan that wraps offerings into a comprehensive bundled package.
• High Out-of-Pocket Payments: Employees frequently pay out-of-pocket for services that are not covered by their insurance, which discourages the use of preventive care. welUp removes the barrier for preventive care by allowing employees a credit limit of ₹5 Lakhs with 0% EMI, and therefore can have a more favorable cost of health to pay for their health proactively.
• Aggressive Short-Term Solutions: Many plans are focused on providing acute services at the risk of not providing long-term health maintenance and disease prevention. welUp provides a full suite of health management services throughout the health wellness continuum, from fertility to fitness, and fills the gap between the intent of the plan and outcomes.

Bridging the Gap - The Future of Employee Benefits

• Increasing what is covered: Include preventive services, regular health screenings, mental health, dental care, and fertility services. welUp offers a single, all-inclusive membership plan that covers these areas without increased cost.
• Integrating Wellness Programs: Develop comprehensive wellness programs to address the physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of well-being. welUp model weaves wellness into everyday care, enabling employees to find fitness programs conveniently, or diet consultations, for example.
• Flexible Payment Availability: Introduce zero-cost EMI plans for outpatient services to minimize barriers to preventive services. This is an important consideration for younger workforces who may be unable to afford preventive services up-front due to limited disposable income.
• Data-Driven Health Insights: Leverage data to monitor employee health behaviors related to illness and use this to develop targeted wellness programs. welUp uses information to present personalized health insight to employees so they are alerted to reduce potential health risks before they escalate.
  Moving from a reactive approach to one of preventive healthcare

Moving from a reactive to a preventive approach to healthcare is not about catching a trend; it’s about changing the way we see healthcare. Companies willing to embrace preventive healthcare will see reductions in healthcare spending, increases in productivity, and ultimately build a healthier and more resilient workforce. 

WelUp is a perfect facilitator for the change to preventive healthcare. welUp provides the complete, all-in-one health plan that includes those aspects often overlooked in employee health. welUp decreases the gap between reactive and preventive health services by allowing employees to act proactively to manage their health, because the best way to manage a potential health crisis is to not have one in the first place.